Posts made by evilrobot

Setting up color profiles for digital illustration single and dual monitor setups:

The MOST frustrating thing with digital illustration is having an illustration that looks fantastic on your screen show up somewhere else and look terrible, too dark, washed out, or colors way over saturated. I'd love a class that just shows the steps you need to take to get your monitors tuned in and the best way to export files and also best way to convert from RGB to CMYK and keep your colors looking close.

I understand this completely. I'm actually on the other end of this. I own a plumbing contracting company and work between 60 and 70 hours a week so I have to put all my creativity in the short few hours I have left during the week and on the weekends. And I think like a lot of people I hate my job.....no I despise, loathe, and detest it. I've also been freelancing on the side for about 19 years....I've never been able to really find my spot in illustration or "break in" as they say. I mostly do work I'm not real fond of (logo's, business cards, news paper ads.) I make a few thousand dollars a year but nothing that would ever support my family. I've been pretty down a few times and almost stopped illustrating completely. But I think drawing is the only thing that keeps me sane. I've had a love of it since I was a kid. Lately I've decided not to do anymore freelance jobs unless they are the right ones that I actually want to do. And work more on personal things. I think for a lot of us there is really no way we could ever stop it's just part of who we are.

I think it works really well on the door mat. I think it's because of the black rubber frames it and draws your eye in towards the word. I think it gets lost in the vertical version. Almost need to have a gradient framing it and bringing our eyes towards the middle or perhaps have the outer flowers darker and getting lighter as they move in towards the word. Also maybe a darker background color because the flowers are so light having a bit more contrast might help. Also maybe a flower in the middle of your O's and your B

@adameverafter I wouldn't take it so personal. The level of skill and dedication of a lot of members of SVS is super high.(these ARE going to be future illustrators of children's books and some of them already are) It's pretty hard to expect to place at the top. I look at who places and then use that to try and figure out why? Concept, skill, a combination of both. I then use that to try and improve on my next one. But for the most part it's about doing the best work you can and getting a great portfolio piece.
(For the record I thought the winning piece was pretty darn cool...)

@johanna-kim Thank you. Yes, I wrote the story out and did some thumbnail sketches. These are my rough pages. Not 100% sure what I'm going to use for final rendering style yet. I just know I want to finish in a more primitive style without loads of rendering. I actually like how these little rough drawings look.

Finished writing the story this morning. Going to try and do this dummy book in a more primitive style with limited colors so I can finish it before I'm 100 years old. Here's the first rough spread. Setting a goal for this at no more than three months to finish.

@charlie-eve-ryan thanks I'm actually glad I got some feedback usually don't get anything. I just got excited and threw my stuff out there too fast. Going to do a lot more research and take a few months to try to put something more suitable together. I like the market I just got to figure out what they need...and if I need to change to a different style of work.

Actually didn't take long at all for a response. I emailed 10 companies and got back 5 rejections and 1 agent rejection. 3 companies and one agent gave me some feedback which was pretty much...your artwork is not suitable for licensing...? Which there is pretty much nothing to be done about my art is what it is... which so far seems to be unfit for any market that pays money...lol

Thanks for the comments and catching that typo! I'm hoping this is the right fit for me and my artwork I really enjoy it. I made my corrections and sent out a bunch of submissions today. Wondering about time frame as far as if they like the work how long do they take to get back to you...weeks, months, a year?